Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the highest-ranking official of the Catholic Church ever to stand before a Vatican criminal court, was convicted on Saturday of embezzlement and fraud, and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. His lawyer, Fabio Filoni, told reporters in the courtroom that he would appeal the ruling, asserting that his client is innocent. Becciu is expected to remain free for now; he is Italian and resides in the Vatican.
In total, ten individuals have been charged with various crimes, including fraud, abuse of office, and money laundering, all of whom denied any wrongdoing. Court President Giuseppe Pignatone took 25 minutes to read the rulings. Becciu, like most of the other defendants, was convicted of some charges and acquitted of others. Only one defendant, Becciu's former secretary Father Mauro Carlino, was acquitted of all charges.
The trial, which revealed significant internal disputes and conspiracies at the highest levels of the Vatican, spanned 86 sessions over two and a half years. The proceedings largely centered around the purchase of a property in London by the Vatican's Secretariat of State without following the prescribed controls. The Secretariat is the main administrative and diplomatic office in the Vatican.
At the time, Becciu was serving as the second-highest official in the Secretariat in 2013 when it began investing in a fund managed by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, acquiring about 45 percent of the property located at 60 Sloan Street in an upscale area of London. Mincione was convicted of embezzlement and money laundering and received the same sentence as Becciu.
**Irresponsible Investment**
The court stated that Becciu was irresponsible and "over-speculative" in investing more than $200 million in Mincione's fund between 2013 and 2014, noting that this amounted to about a third of the Secretariat's assets at that time. In 2018, as Becciu took on another role in the Vatican, the Secretariat felt it was being deceived by Mincione and turned to another financier, Gianluigi Torzi, for help to oust Mincione and purchase the remainder of the property.
Prosecutors indicated that Torzi also fled the Vatican. He was convicted of fraud and extortion and sentenced to six years in prison. The Vatican sold the property last year at a loss of about 140 million euros ($150 million).
Becciu was also convicted of embezzlement for directing funds and contracts to companies or charities controlled by his brothers in their home island of Sardinia. Pope Francis had dismissed him from his subsequent position in 2020 over accusations of favoritism, but he remained a cardinal.
